1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for controlling a screen brightness in a portable terminal More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for controlling a screen brightness in a portable terminal that provides a reduced current consumption by the portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently manufactured portable terminals now often provide various application functions together with the convergence and complexity of stationary information devices and the discrete devices that used to be necessary to provide such application functions.
For example, communication functions provided by a portable terminal now typically include a function of transmitting/receiving various messages (e.g. transmission/reception of a short message/a multimedia message) together with an existing voice communication function. In addition, the portable terminal can provide a function of acquiring (or capturing) an image using a built-in/external camera module, various game functions, functions that manage a personal schedule, including providing a wake-up call and the like, an MP3 player function, a television reception function, and an Internet function.
A considerable number of functions among the various application functions as described above are functions which are used not for a short period of time but rather over a long period of time. Particularly, the Internet function provided by the portable terminal consumes a large amount of current from the battery because of browsing dominated by a white screen, and thus causes current consumption to increase in the portable terminal Such increased current consumption means the battery wears down faster, adversely affecting user satisfaction.